The multiplication of the loaves for the hungry

Jesus teaches sharing

Luke 9:10-17

1. Opening prayer

Lord Jesus, send Your Spirit to help us read the scriptures with the same mind that You read them to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. In the light of the Word, written in the bible, You helped them to discover the presence of God in the disturbing events of Your sentence and death. Thus, the cross that seemed to be the end of all hope became for them the source of life and of resurrection.

Create in us silence so that we may listen to Your voice in creation and in the scriptures, in events and in people, above all in the poor and suffering. May Your word guide us so that we too, like the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, may experience the force of Your resurrection and witness to others that You are alive in our midst as source of fraternity, justice and peace. We ask this of You, Jesus, son of Mary, who revealed the Father to us and sent us Your Spirit. Amen.

2. Reading

a) A key to the reading: the literary context:

Our text comes from the middle of Luke’s Gospel: Jesus expands and intensifies His mission in the villages of Galilee and He sends the twelve disciples to help Him (Lk 9:1-6). This news reaches the ears of Herod, the same who had John the Baptist killed (Lk 9:7-9). When the disciples come back from their mission, Jesus invites them to go to a solitary place (Lk 9:10). Then follows our text concerning the multiplication of the loaves (Lk 9:11-17).

Immediately after this, Jesus asks, “Who do people say that I am?” (Lk 9:18-21). Then, for the first time, He goes on to speak of His passion and death and the consequences of all this for the disciples (Lk 9:22-28). Then we have the Transfiguration where Jesus speaks with Moses and Elijah concerning His passion and death in Jerusalem (Lk 9:28-43). There follows another proclamation of His passion, to the consternation and incomprehension of His disciples (Lk 9:44-50). Finally, Jesus decides to go to Jerusalem to meet His death (Lk 9:52).

b) A division of the text as an aid to its reading:

Luke 9:10: They go to a place apart.

Luke 9:11: The crowd learns that Jesus is there and He welcomes them.

Luke 9:12: The disciples worry about the people going hungry.

Luke 9:13: Jesus makes a suggestion and the reply of the disciples.

Luke 9:14-15: Jesus’ initiative to resolve the problem of the people’s hunger

Luke 9:16: Eucharistic connotations and sense.

Luke 9:17: The great sign: all will eat.

c) The text:

When the apostles returned, they explained to him what they had done. He took them and withdrew in private to a town called Bethsaida. The crowds, meanwhile, learned of this and followed him. He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed to be cured. As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve approached him and said, "Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in a deserted place here." He said to them, "Give them some food yourselves." They replied, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have, unless we ourselves go and buy food for all these people." Now the men there numbered about five thousand. Then he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty." They did so and made them all sit down. Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets.

3. A moment of prayerful silence

so that the Word of God may penetrate and enlighten our life.

4. Some questions

to help us in our personal reflection.

a) What did you like best and what struck you most in the text?

b) In what situation does the crowd find itself according to the text?

c) What is the reaction or feeling of the disciples before the situation of the crowd?

d) What is the reaction or feeling of Jesus before the situation of the crowd?

e) Which facts from the Old Testament story does this text recall?

f) Do you know of any initiatives of people today who give the hungry crowd food to eat?

g) How do we help the crowd? Do we distribute fish or do we teach them to fish?

5. A key to the reading

for those who wish to go deeper into the theme.

a) The historical context of our text:

The historical context of Luke’s Gospel always has two aspects: the aspect of the times of Jesus, that is, the 30’s in Palestine, and the context of the Christian communities of the 80’s for whom he is writing his Gospel.

At the time of Jesus in Palestine, the people lived in expectation of a Messiah who would be a new Moses and who would repeat the great signs worked by Moses in Exodus: leading the people through the desert and feeding them with manna. The multiplication of the loaves in the desert was for the crowd a sign that the messianic time had come (cf. Jn 6:14-15).

In Luke’s time, in the Greek communities, it was important to confirm the Christians in the conviction of their faith and to give them direction in the midst of difficulties. The way Luke describes the multiplication of the loaves, recalls the celebration of the Eucharist as celebrated in the communities in the 80’s, and helps them to deepen their understanding of the Eucharist in their daily lives. Besides, in his description of the multiplication of the loaves, as we shall see, Luke recalls important figures in the history of the people of God: Moses, Elijah and Elisha, thus showing that Jesus is truly the Messiah who is to come to fulfill the promises of the past.

b) A commentary on the text:

Luke 9:10: Jesus and the disciples go apart in a lonely place.

The disciples return from the mission to which they were sent (Lk 9:1-6). Jesus invites them to go to a lonely place near Bethsaida, north of Lake Galilee. Mark’s Gospel adds that He invites them to rest a little (Mk 6:31). When Luke describes the mission of the 72 disciples, He is also describing Jesus’ revision to His missionary activity, an activity carried out by the disciples (Lk 10:17-20).

Luke 9:11: The crowd seeks Jesus and Jesus welcomes them.

The crowd knows where Jesus went and they follow Him. Mark is more explicit. He says that Jesus and the disciples went by boat whereas the crowd followed on foot by another road to a specific place. The crowd arrives before Jesus (Mk 6:32-33). When Jesus arrives at the place of rest, He sees the crowd and welcomes them. He speaks to them of the Kingdom and heals the sick. Mark adds that the crowd was like sheep without a shepherd. Before such a situation, Jesus reacts as a “good shepherd”, leading the crowd by His words and feeding them with loaves and fishes (Mk 6:34ff).

Luke 9:12: The worry of the disciples and the hunger of the crowd.

The day is fading; it is almost sunset. The disciples are worried and ask Jesus to send the crowd away. They say that it is impossible to find food sufficient for so many people in the desert. For them, the only solution is to let the people go to nearby villages to buy bread. They cannot imagine any other solution.

Reading between the lines of this description of the situation of the crowd, we find something very important. People forget to eat in order to stay with Jesus. This means that Jesus must have known how to attract people, even to the point that they forget everything to follow Him in the desert.

Luke 9:13: Jesus’ suggestion and the reply of the disciples.

Jesus says, “You give them something to eat”. The disciples are frightened, because they only have five loaves and two fish. It is they who must solve the problem and the only thing that comes to their mind is to send the crowd away to buy bread. They can only think of the traditional solution, namely that someone has to obtain bread for the people. Someone has to get money, buy bread and distribute it among the crowd, but in the desert such a solution is impossible. They cannot see any other possibility. In other words, if Jesus insists on not sending the crowd away, then there is no solution to the hunger of the crowd. It does not occur to them that the solution could come from Jesus and from the crowd itself.

Luke 9:14-15: Jesus’ initiative to solve the problem of the hunger.

There were five thousand people. That’s a lot of people! Jesus asks the disciples to make them sit in groups of fifty. It is at this point that Luke begins to use the bible to throw light on the facts of Jesus’ life. He recalls Moses. It was Moses who first gave the hungry crowd something to eat in the desert after leaving Egypt (cf. Num 1-4). Luke also recalls the prophet Elisha. It was he, in fact, who in the Old Testament, had made a few loaves more than sufficient to feed a multitude (2 Kings 4:42-44). The text suggests, then, that Jesus is the new Moses, the new prophet who must come into the world (cf. Jn 6:14-15). The multitude of the communities knew the Old Testament, and half an allusion would have been sufficient for them. Thus they discover gradually the mystery that is unfolding in the person of Jesus.

Luke 9:16: Recalling the Eucharist and its meaning.

When the people sit on the ground, Jesus multiplies the loaves and asks the disciples to distribute them. It is important to note the way Luke describes this action. He says, “Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, raised His eyes to heaven, and said the blessing over them; then He broke them and handed them to His disciples to distribute among the crowd”. This manner of speaking to the communities of the 80’s (and of all times) recalls the Eucharist. For these very words will be used (and are still used) in the celebration of the Supper of the Lord (22:19). Luke suggests that the Eucharist must lead to the multiplication of the loaves, that is, to sharing. It must help Christians to take care of the concrete needs of the neighbor. It is the bread of life that gives courage and leads the Christian to face the problems of the crowd in a new way, not from outside, but from among the crowd.

Luke 9:17: The great sign: all will eat.

All will eat, all will be satisfied and there will be full baskets left over! An unexpected solution, performed by Jesus and born from within the crowd itself, beginning from the little that they had brought, five loaves and two fish, and there were twelve baskets full of scraps after the five thousand had eaten of the five loaves and two fish!

c) A deepening: The greater miracle:

Some will ask, “There was no miracle then? It was just a sharing?” Here are three reflections by way of an answer:

A first reflection: Which would be the greater miracle today: for instance, that on a certain day of the year, say Christmas, everyone has enough to eat and receives a Christmas hamper; or perhaps that people begin to share their bread so that no one goes hungry and there would be leftovers for other crowds. Which would be the greater miracle? What do you think?

A second reflection: The word miracle (miraculum) comes from the verb to admire. A miracle is an extraordinary action, outside the normal, that causes admiration and leads to think of God. The great miracle, the greatest miracle of all, is (1) Jesus Himself, God made man! Thus God becomes extraordinarily human as only God can be human! Another great miracle is (2) the change that Jesus succeeds in working among the crowd that is used to solutions from outside. Jesus succeeds in making the crowd face its problem from within and to take into account the means at their disposal. A great miracle, an extraordinary thing is (3) that through this gesture of Jesus’, all eat and there are leftovers! When we share, there is always more... and leftovers! So there are three great miracles: Jesus Himself, the conversion of people and the sharing of goods leading to an abundance! Three miracles born of a new experience of God as Father revealed to us in Jesus. This experience of God changed all mental categories and the way of life. It opened an entirely new horizon and created a new way of living together with others. This is the greatest miracle: another world made possible!

A third reflection: It is difficult to know how things happened. No one is saying that Jesus did not work a miracle. He worked many miracles! But we must not forget that the greatest miracle is the resurrection of Jesus. Through their faith in Jesus, people begin to live in a new way, sharing bread with the brothers and sisters who have nothing and are hungry: “None of their members was ever in want, as all those who owned land or houses would sell them, and bring the money from them to present it to the apostles” (Acts 4:34-35). When a miracle is described in the bible, the greater attention is drawn not towards the miraculous aspect, but rather towards the meaning the miracle has for life and for the faith of the community of those who believe in Jesus, the revelation of the Father. In the so-called “first world” of the so-called “Christian” countries, animals have more to eat than human beings of the “third world”. Many people are hungry! This means that the Eucharist has not taken deep root yet, nor does it reach out as it could and should.

6. The prayer of a Psalm: 81(80)

The God who frees and feeds His people

Sing aloud to God our strength;

shout for joy to the God of Jacob!

Raise a song, sound the timbrel,

the sweet lyre with the harp.

Blow the trumpet at the new moon,

at the full moon, on our feast day.

For it is a statute for Israel,

an ordinance of the God of Jacob.

He made it a decree in Joseph,

when He went out over the land of Egypt.

I hear a voice I had not known:

"I relieved your shoulder of the burden;

your hands were freed from the basket.

In distress you called, and I delivered you;

I answered you in the secret place of thunder;

I tested you at the waters of Meribah.

Hear, O My people, while I admonish you!

O Israel, if you would but listen to Me!

There shall be no strange god among you;

you shall not bow down to a foreign god.

I am the Lord your God,

who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

"But My people did not listen to My voice;

Israel would have none of Me.

So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,

to follow their own counsels.

O that My people would listen to Me,

that Israel would walk in My ways!

I would soon subdue their enemies,

and turn My hand against their foes.

Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward Him,

and their fate would last for ever.

I would feed you with the finest of wheat,

and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you."

7. Final Prayer

Lord Jesus, we thank You for the word that has enabled us to understand better the will of the Father. May Your Spirit enlighten our actions and grant us the strength to practice what Your Word has revealed to us. May we, like Mary, Your mother, not only listen to but also practice the Word. You who live and reign with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.